Double salary saga: Accused MPs being investigated for stealing

Three members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) minority in Parliament, who have been accused of receiving double salaries while serving as MPs and ministers or deputies, are being investigated for stealing.

The latest development comes after they honored the invitation of the Criminal Investigations Department [CID] on Tuesday over the matter.

The three, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe Ghansah and Eric Opoku, had been visited by the leadership of the minority in Parliament earlier in the day, but they did not make public comments after the private meeting.

Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe, who served as the Member of Parliament for Ada and Minister of State at the Presidency in charge of Social and Allied Institutions, in an interview with Citi News said, “It is never true and cannot be true. Whoever has been a minister before, you have something from the executive to collect and you have something as a member of parliament…. Currently, there are ministers who are getting” she claimed.

The three accused persons have since been discharged, but are expected to report back at the CID on 14th May, 2018.

“I am not a thief, I worked for the state and the state gave me what I deserve. They had good people; accountants and auditors there. If I owe the state, they will write first to me to inform us that we owe them. They shouldn’t target us because we are NDC,” she said.

Meanwhile, lawyer for Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, one of the accused persons, said the actions against his client will not be fruitful.

In an interview with pressmen after their encounter with officers of the CID, he said, “this will not go anyway; legally this will not fly.”

“Those who are MPs and Ministers within the NPP, how much is their salary. The President should tell us who has determined his salary. They are being paid… They are being paid by Controller and they are being paid by Parliament… that has been the convention since 1993. Why are you zeroing in from only 2013?,” he said.

MPs accused of taking double salaries

Some NDC MPs have come under attack over allegations that they received salaries while serving as both Members of Parliament and Ministers or Deputy Ministers.

is currently investigating the matter and is inviting some accused persons for questioning.

Although the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service annulled the invitation of 18 out of the 25 accused persons last week, it said it would soon re-invite others to assist in the probe.

But at a press conference recently, the Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson, said the accusation is only geared towards unnecessarily “criminalizing and harassing” Minority MPs.